Thrusters Fire To Steer Orion Home:

At 10:53 p.m. EDT, the Orion spacecraft executed a brief nine-second thruster burn, increasing its velocity by 5.3 feet per second and nudging the Artemis II crew further along their return path to Earth.

With the maneuver complete, the crew has now crossed the halfway mark on their journey home.

Temporary Signal Loss Resolved

Roughly two hours before the burn, mission teams encountered an unexpected return link loss of signal during a data rate transition, briefly disrupting the flow of communications and telemetry from the spacecraft.

Two-way contact was subsequently restored, allowing flight controllers and crew to resume preparations for the scheduled maneuver without further delay.

art002e016204 (April 6, 2026) – NASA astronaut and Artemis II Pilot Victor Glover pictured here in the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis II lunar flyby. Glover and his fellow crewmates spent approximately seven hours taking turns at the Orion windows capturing science data to share with their team back on Earth. At closest approach, they came within 4,067 miles of the Moon’s surface.NASA

Re-Entry Briefings And Next Steps

Earlier in the day, officials from NASA provided additional details on re-entry and splashdown procedures during a mission status briefing.

The next key milestone—a third return trajectory correction burn—is planned for April 10 at approximately 1:53 p.m., ahead of final re-entry operations.

Splashdown Target Remains On Track

NASA continues to target splashdown at 8:07 p.m. (5:07 p.m. PDT) on Friday, April 10, off the coast of San Diego, as the Artemis II mission enters its final phase of return.

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Monitoring over deep space network before artemis II signal acquisition